THE GLASS MENAGERIE

THEMES

THEME # 1

The Difficulty of Accepting

Reality

THEME # 1

The Difficulty of Accepting Reality

Of the three Wingfields, reality has by far the weakest grasp on Laura. The private world in which she lives is populated by glass animals—objects that, like Laura’s inner life, are incredibly fanciful and dangerously delicate.

THEME # 1

The Difficulty of Accepting Reality

Tom is capable of functioning in the real world, as we see in his holding down a job and talking to strangers. But, in the end, he has no more motivation than Laura does to pursue professional success, romantic relationships, or even ordinary friendships, and he prefers to retreat into the fantasies provided by literature and movies and the stupor provided by drunkenness.

THEME # 1

The Difficulty of Accepting Reality

Amanda’s relationship to reality is the most complicated in the play. Unlike her children, she is partial to real-world values and longs for social and financial success. Yet her attachment to these values is exactly what prevents her from perceiving a number of truths about her life.

THEME # 2

The Impossibil

ity of True Escape

THEME # 2

The Impossibility of True Escape

The play takes an ambiguous attitude toward the moral implications and even the effectiveness of Tom’s escape. As an able-bodied young man, he is locked into his life not by exterior factors but by emotional ones—by his loyalty to and possibly even love for Laura and Amanda.

THEME # 3DUTIES and

RESPONSIBILITIES

THEME # 3

DUTIES and RESPONSIBILI

TIES

In The Glass Menagerie, duty and responsibility largely arise from family. The play examines the conflict between one’s obligations and one’s real desires, suggesting that being true to one may necessitate abandonment of the other. We also see that duties are gender specific, and arise largely from the expectations of societal norms.

Other Themes

Other Themes MEMORY AND THE PAST

WEAKNESS

Other ThemesDECEPTION AND

LIES

DREAMS, HOPES, AND PLANS

Symbolisms

Laura’s Glass Menagerie

symbolisms

Laura’s collection of glass animal figurines represents a number of facets of her personality. The menagerie also represents the imaginative world to which Laura devotes herself—a world that is colorful and enticing but based on fragile illusions.

The Glass Unicorn

The glass unicorn in Laura’s collection—significantly, her favorite figure—represents her peculiarity. Laura too is unusual, lonely, and ill-adapted to existence in the world in which she lives. The fate of the unicorn is also a smaller-scale version of Laura’s fate in Scene Seven.

symbolisms

The Fire Escape

The fire escape, a physical symbol, is used symbolically to represent various aspects of being trapped or as a method of escape. As Williams writes, the "huge buildings are always burning with the slow and implacable fires of human desperation."

symbolisms

REFERENCES:Play Summary. Retrieved November 1, 2016 from https://www.cliffsnotes.com/literature/g/the-glass-menagerie/play-summary

The Glass Unicorn. Retrieved November 1, 2016 from https://www.google.com.ph/search?q=glass+menagerie&biw=1366&bih=638&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjdmbacjIfQAhXHzLwKHS6NCe8Q_AUIBigB#tbm=isch&q=The+Glass+Unicorn&imgrc=5W5xr9Cn8Z60-M%3A

The Fire Escape. Retrieved November 1, 2016 from https://www.google.com.ph/search?q=themes&biw=1366&bih=589&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiMwP2UoYfQAhWGxbwKHZDyAVQQ_AUIBigB#tbm=isch&q=The+Fire+Escape&imgrc=4RQ-vL9Ne3UakM%3A

REFERENCES:The Glass Menagerie. Retrieved November 1, 2016 from http://www.shmoop.com/glass-menagerie/dreams-hopes-plans-theme.html

The Glass Menagerie. Retrieved November 1, 2016 from http://debbiejlee.com/the_glass_menagerie.pdf